KIA, MIA, AWOL or retired?
Where have they gone? It was very recently that I heard that ALL future SAP development for ERP would be using the Web Dynpro ABAP FPM. Yet looking through the abstracts for the various sessions at TechEd in the custom development track - I can't find a reference to them. (Perhaps they are there and I'm not seeing them - I often get accused of this by my wife when I'm looking for things in at home.)
Are we all experts now?
Well, looking at the questions on POWL in the forums, we're just starting to embrace use the technology. People are finding that new solutions are using the FPM and POWL and are desparately trying to find out how to use them. So I'd suggest - that we are far from being experts at these topics. Certainly in the questions about POWL take a long time to be answered.
So perhaps we don't need them?
Again, look at the forums - the is not used much, and there aren't that many questions in the about POWL (the forum is supposed to also cover POWL). But I wouldn't put this down to there not being a need. As go the and I find that many people are asking about POWL - as they try to deal with and adjust SAP implementations of the technology.
It is about people not knowing about the tools
I think we'd have the demand for the sessions if it were clearer to people why they should be using these patterns. I see many many discussions in the where people are clearly developing WDA applications that do not use the FPM. I suggest that they might, and that it might be a good solution to their issues - but I think I'm mostly too late by the time the developer has got the spec and is working on the solution.
So is there no perceived need within the community to educate people about the two patterns? Well, perhaps there is and it is just that the broadcast is still happening at the functional level? In a year's time it might have filtered down to the technical level. But should SAP not be a little more proactive about telling people that this is the way to go?
Or perhaps these aren't as "standard" as I believe?
Or perhaps these patterns don't have the support of SAP that I thought they did? Now that would be a blow. I don't think that is the case. But some sessions to educate us on how best to use them would be a step in the right direction I think?
